Safe All Ways West Metro Fire Rescue’s Motor Vehicle Safety Program Funded by CDOT

WMFR’s Pedestrian Safety Program • Part of a comprehensive approach to promoting motor vehicle safety: • CPS Fit Stations on Tuesdays and Fridays, low cost child restraints • Presentations for parents of young children (Head Start, WIC, JeffCo Health Dept., MCPN clinics) – provide booklets to use during presentation and take home. • Kids Club – monthly activities sent to parents of young children • School Presentations – elementary, middle and high schools • Events: • • • •

Family Fire Muster – Young Marines trained to help people cross safely Other Agencies’ events – promote bike, pedestrian, MV, railway safety Walk to School Day – 1st Wednesday in October Bike to School Day – 1st Wednesday in May

• Social Media – seasonal messaging on Facebook, Twitter, website

Why so much emphasis on MV Safety? • Part of WMFR’s “Community Risk Reduction” strategy • Review our call data and identify high risk areas • Develop programs for targeted audiences to reduce risk • Focus on prevention and mitigation • Work with our Life Safety Division, our Fire Chiefs, on-duty crews, our Speakers Bureau, our Media/Community Relations Specialist, volunteers and our community partners to reduce risk

The Goal of our Safe All Ways Program: To reduce the number of calls run by West Metro Fire Rescue for serious injuries in traffic crashes (MVC – passenger vehicle, MVC – auto/pedestrian and bicycle crashes) for 5-19 year olds.

Objectives of our Safe All Ways Program: • 1.1: Firefighters teach students safe pedestrian behavior (grades K, 4, 8, high school): • Identify distracted drivers • Cross in safe places • Look for traffic, look out for yourself and others, avoid being a distracted pedestrian

• 1.2: Firefighters teach students safe bicyclist behavior (grades 2, 6, 8, high school): • Ride safely, obey basic rules of the road • Wear a helmet • Make sure your helmet is fitted properly

• 1.3: West Metro Fire Rescue will host an annual safety event (Family Fire Muster) including bicycle, pedestrian and motor vehicle safety activities. • Pedestrian safety activity – the Young Marines show parents and kids how to communicate with drivers, look left, right and left again before stepping in the street and continuing to watch for traffic as they cross. • Low-cost Bike helmets – in order to receive a low-cost bike helmet, proper helmet fit must be demonstrated by the recipient or the recipient’s parent. • Bike Rodeo – bicycle skills and basic rules of the road are taught, helmet use is mandatory (loaner helmets are provided). • Motor Vehicle Safety – a booth with child passenger safety information and services, along with an anti-distracted driving campaign (blue nail polish, pledge book and display).

What does our call data look like? Trauma incidents responded to by WMFR

1 2

Falls - less than 20 feet Motor Vehicle Crashes – passenger vehicle

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Falls – unsafe walking surface Motor Vehicle – Auto/Ped Sports Injury Bicycle Crash Bite or sting Fire or smoke Motor Vehicle – recreation vehicle/ATV

10

Drowning or near-drowning WMFR’s total incident responses for the year

# in 2011

# in 2012

1512 1096

1450 1077

675 117 115 115 40 15 7

584 108 134 83 39 9 4

1 25,226

# in 2013

# in 2014

# in 2015

1561 1597 1158 1221

1645 1275

754 132 110 107 35 12 2

777 151 125 110 48 7 6

2 1 0 25,187 25,852 27,523

680 143 116 104 54 8 2 2 28,320

% Decrease from 2014

% Increase from 2014 3.00 4.42

12.48 5.29 7.19 5.45 12.5 14.29

66.66 200

Analysis of the risk areas: Falls – less than 20 feet

How often did this injury happen? (average of past 4 years) At what time of day did it most often occur? On what day of the week did it most often occur? Which months did it most often occur? Which age group did this affect the most in 2015? What is the severity of incident?

Where does this most often occur?

What is the impact to the target audience? How many people are affected by the issue in 2015? How likely is the problem to reoccur?

MV crashes (passenger Falls – unsafe walking surface Motor Vehicle – Auto vs. Ped Bicycle crashes vehicles) Very Frequently Very Frequently Frequently Frequently Frequently Average 1553 times per year Average 1165 times per year Average 694 times per year Average 130 times per year Average 104 times per year

10:00-11:00 am

5:00-6:00 pm

4:00 pm

5:00-6:00 pm and 1:00 pm

11:00 am -1:00 pm

Saturday

Wednesday

Monday

Tuesday and Friday

Saturday

October and September

September and July

January and March

September

July and August

80-93 years

14 year olds

47-59 year olds

2 dead

drivers age 17 had highest # 77-90 years of crashes; 28% of drivers were age 16-25 3 dead

7 dead

41% no helmet 1 dead

82% transported by WMFR Family Residence, Residential board and care, Nursing homes 80226, 80214 Significant

50% transported by WMFR Intersections; Streets/roads in commercial areas, Highway, Residential streets/roads 80226 Significant

79% transported by WMFR Family Residence, Nursing homes, Residential board and care 80226, 80232 Significant

60% transported by WMFR Intersections; Streets/roads in commercial areas, Residential streets/roads 80214, 80127, 80215, 80226 Significant

70% transported by WMFR Residential streets/roads, Streets/roads in commercial areas 80127,80228, 80226 Significant

1645

1275

680

143

104

Very

Very

Very

Very

Very

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 2 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35 36 38 40 41 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 5 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 69 70 73 79 8 82 84 (blank)

2015 Auto vs. Ped – Age Total

7

6

5

4

3 Total

2

1

0

2015 Auto vs. Ped - Gender Total 120

100

80

60

Total

40

20

0 Female

Male

(blank)

2015 Auto vs. Ped – Zip code Total 16

14

12

10

8 Total 6

4

2

0

2015 Auto vs. Ped – Day of week Total 35

30

25

20 Total 15

10

5

0 Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

(blank)

2015 Auto vs. Ped – Time of day Total 18 16 14 12 10 Total 8 6 4 2 0 0

1

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

5

6

7

8

9

(blank)

More info in the report narratives: • The narrative descriptions from the calls involving injury to ages 5-19 reveal: • For Auto vs. Pedestrian crashes - The victims were most often struck while crossing in crosswalks, from sidewalks across a roadway, at a corner intersection or in a parking lot. Most crashes involved a vehicle traveling at a low rate of speed (under 20 mph). • For teens, several incidents involved skateboards or bicycles • For older teens, alcohol was involved in a small amount of incidents.

• For Bicycle crashes – most incidents occurred close to home or in a driveway and involved children crashing into pedestrians, other bicyclists or parked vehicles. Most patients were not wearing helmets.

What do our school programs look like? • Elementary School Presentations (delivered through PE Classes by trained members of our Speakers Bureau): • Safety message is: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Cross at intersections or crosswalks Get the driver’s attention before you step into the street Look LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT again before you step into the street Keep watching as you cross

• Grade K (ages 5-6) – cross with an adult • Grade 4 (ages 9-10) – cross with a group of kids • Grade 2 – (ages 7-8) – bike and helmet safety; basic rules of the road (get off your bike and walk it across the street) • Grade 6 – (ages 11-12) – Brain Injury Prevention (walk, bike and ride safely)

Middle School Programs • Crash Matters • Modeled after SMFR’s program; delivered by Firefighter presenters • Delivered in the 8th Grade Science Classes • Use Newton’s Laws of Motion to explain real life motor vehicle safety issues: 1. Inertia - An object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force (seatbelts, projectiles in vehicles) 2. Force = Mass x Acceleration (crash forces experienced inside/outside a vehicle during a crash; Would you rather get hit by a fast motor cycle or slow truck?) 3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (The pavement will hit you back with equal and opposite force after you land on it if you get hit by a car on foot/bike)

• Students identify common distractions for drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and come up with a strategy to mitigate the risk associated with distractions.

High School Program • “What do you consider lethal?” presentation • Delivered in the Family and Consumer Science classes or other elective classes (Safety, 1st Aid, Automotive Technology) • Have students in grades 9-12, so not all students are driving yet, therefore we address MV safety issues for drivers, passengers and pedestrians. • Identify #1 cause of death for teens • Very interactive – uses Pre/post test, video, posters, post-it activities, discussion, pledges, t-shirts • Students identify their own solutions to the problem of DD

Students with Special Needs • Customize programs based on students’ learning profile and needs: • Fletcher Miller School – Annual Bicycle Day in September – provide loaner helmets and help fit them for students who can wear them; help kids ride bikes. • Rocky Mountain Deaf School – presentations at the school and participation in their annual Field Day. Presenters place emphasis on pedestrian safety as it applies to students who are deaf or hard of hearing – how to watch for distracted drivers, how to communicate with drivers, how to best look out for yourself while in and around traffic. Hire an interpreter if necessary. • Havern Center – work with school staff prior to visit to determine which presentations work for each group, based on learning profile instead of traditional grade level.

Events • Family Fire Muster • • • •

Train the Young Marines to safely cross attendees through intersections Provide them orange vests and stop paddles Hire Bicycle Colorado to put on bicycle skills course – have a mandatory helmet rule St. Anthony Hospital – shows how to fit helmets, distributes 200+ low cost helmets

• Walk to School Day

• Send PE teachers a planning packet • 1st come/1st served for fire engine visit to the school – greet students in AM • Get handouts from CDOT

• Bike to School Day

• Invite PE teachers to schedule us • 1st five schools to respond get a meet and greet at their school in the AM and handouts from CDOT and 4 multisport helmets from St. Anthony Hospital

2015-16 School Year – 6778 student contacts for motor vehicle safety programs 18 Elementary Schools 4 Middle Schools 2 High Schools (plus two canceled events) 3 Schools - Walk to School Day events 5 Schools - Bike to School Day events

total # WTS BTS # grade # grade # grade # grade # grade # HS presenta day day K 2 4 6 8 students tions 10/7/155/4/16 439

865

834

795

605

149

3687

1292

1799

Program Evaluation • Grades K, 2 and 4 – skills assessments: • 96% of Kindergarteners demonstrated looking left, right, then left again before crossing street • 89% of 4th Graders demonstrated how to continually watch for traffic while crossing the street • 91% of 2nd Graders demonstrated that they can properly fit a helmet

Program Evaluation • Grades 6, 8 and High School – pre/post tests: • 90% of 6th Graders identified the lack of a bike helmet as a possible cause of a brain injury • 99% of 8th Graders identified a crosswalk as the best place to cross street in front of their school • 92% of High School Students identified eliminating distractions as a way to survive their teen driving years

Program Evaluation • Family Fire Muster – attendee survey for parents • On the attendee survey we asked parents to identify any messages their children told them they learned from West Metro Firefighters at their school: 1. Firefighters are your friends 2. Wear a bike helmet 3. Cross the street safely

Call Data Evaluation • WMFR’s Call Data from 2011-2015 for Auto vs. Ped/Bicyclist for 5-19 year olds shows that we are keeping the total number of call run on this population under 1% of the emergency calls we run: Auto vs. Ped for Year 5-19 year olds total calls percentage 2011 22 25226 0.00087 2012 22 25187 0.00087 2013 32 25852 0.00124 2014 23 27523 0.00084 2015 27 28320 0.00095

Age most affected over 5 years (auto vs. ped.): Count of Age in Column Years Labels Row Labels 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Grand Total 10 1 1 2 11 4 2 4 10 12 1 3 1 4 1 10 13 2 4 3 2 2 13 14 4 2 2 5 13 15 4 1 7 1 13 16 1 4 4 3 12 17 3 4 2 4 4 17 18 1 1 2 1 5 19 4 3 4 11 5 1 2 2 1 6 6 1 1 2 7 1 1 8 2 1 2 1 2 8 9 1 1 1 3 Grand Total 22 22 32 23 27 126

Call data evaluation from 2011-2015 (cont.): • Ages most affected: 17, 13, 14, 15 – while we were able to decrease the number for younger elementary age kids, we need to address with middle and high school students • Gender – boys (81) more than girls (45) • Months – September, August • Day of week – Tuesdays, Thursdays, Wednesdays • Time of day – 5:00 pm, 3:00 pm (evening commute, after school) • Zip Codes – 80127, 80215, 80226, 80214

Lessons Learned • For Elementary School - Say it, show it, coach it. • For Middle and High School students – present the problem to the students and ask them to come up with a solution. • Easier to get into schools through “Specials” (physical education) and Electives than through grade level classrooms, core subjects or assemblies. • Use what you’ve got (for us – Firefighters) • Work with your community partners to collaborate and strategize your programs (contacting/delivering in the schools, events, etc.)

Questions? Susan Saito, Community Education Specialist West Metro Fire Rescue 433 South Allison Parkway Lakewood, CO 80226 (303) 989-4307, ext. 537 [email protected] WestMetroFire.org